


You’ve been added to: deathsquad!!!, Yang Jeongin

by peachy (claret)



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Gen, Other, Rating May Change, Tags May Change, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-07-23 12:32:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/claret/pseuds/peachy





	1. Change Nickname?

   “So what you’re telling me is that I get to pick?”  
     “Yes.”  
     “Actually, I think I’d rather just stay in this-”  
     “You have a week.”  
     A week. A week to watch his loved ones grieve over him. The faster he chose, the faster this would end. A week for Yang Jeongin to decide how he would spend the rest of his eternity.  
     But how easy can it be to just, pick? Pick if he was to be evil and mischievous like a demon, if he was to be pure and soft like an angel, and it couldn’t just--  
     “That’s not necessarily the criteria, you know.”  
     “What?”  
     “Demons aren’t necessarily _evil_ , if you keep thinking that way, you’re going to catch yourself up in it.”  
     “Were you… reading my mind? I feel like that’s a violation of privacy.”  
     “You’ll get used to it in the next week. So… It’s probably better if you told me what you wanted to be so I can start the processing.”  
     He looked at the man before him. Older, shorter… And the messy curls. He looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Licking over his braces nervously, Jeongin leaned back on the bedpost, causing it to crack and groan. How many people entered this room? How do they determine who _gets_ to pick? It’s a privilege, clearly, but it was a privilege that he didn’t want.  
     “It’s kind of a funny thing, I guess. _Demon_ or _angel_ as… Not dead people or freshly dead people would call it…”  
    Dead.  
     The word struck through Jeongin’s heart like an arrow.  
     “They’re really not a judgment of morality. They’re just a judgment of how you want to treat the world after your death. The angels, lights, astrologicals, and the winds are all the helpful scale. They’re the ones that’ll put 3 dollars in your pocket on a bad day, or give you a sign that someone is listening to you.”  
     Nodding along uncomfortably, Jeongin rubbed his arms. How did he die? How did he get the chance to pick what would happen to him? Did his family miss him? Did he miss his family? Can he feel emotions? Questions added up quickly. Noticing the younger boy was getting uncomfortable, Chan slowed himself down, reaching his hand up to rub down Jeongin’s arm. He gestured at him to sit down. After he was comfortable, the spirit continued speaking.  
     “And on the other hand… The demons, poltergeists, ghosts… All of the stuff that the scary movies warned you about… Actually aren’t that scary, you know? They just like messing with people. Giving people Deja Vu. Walking in halls at nights. Turning electronics on. Those are the creatures who like to have fun even at other people’s expense.”  
     Almost as if it was a cue, there was a soft knock on the door followed by a modest shuffling of feet. Jeongin could tell that Chan was annoyed he was being interrupted, but he opened the door anyway, to be greeted by two boys. One of them was small, much like Chan, but looked a little more weary and generally had a heavy aura. Despite the air around him radiating tiredness, he looked happy, and gave a lopsided grin when the door was opened.  
     “He made a decision, boss.”  
     “I told you not to call me boss, it’s so dumb…”  
     “I know. That’s why I go out of my way to call you it.”  
     Jeongin leaned almost all the way onto his side, holding himself up on the bed with his elbow to see the other boy standing just out of the door frame. The other boy was more of his own height, but there was no way he was even human in the first place, Jeongin thought. He was sculpted like an angel, for lack of better metaphor, with soft features that glowed with his shy smile. He seemed almost excited to be there.  
     “Ah, Jeongin..”  
     The two bursted into whispers littered with Jeongin’s name.  
     “This is Hyunjin.”  
     A gesture to the tall boy.  
     “This is Changbin.”  
     A gesture to the small boy.  
     They both gave half-assed introductions with soft, shy ‘hello’s, and Chan ushered them out, giving them a scolding look. Looking back at Jeongin apologetically, he sighed.  
     “I need to go do this. I… Don’t think I can tell you more than I already have, honestly. I remember when I needed to pick.”  
     “What are you?”  
     “I was… Nervous. But don’t worry about it. Just keep learning other people and see what they say. It’s awful easy to tell who’s light and who’s a demon, right?”  
     “Why are you ignoring me?”  
     And with that, the door clicked shut behind Chan, leaving Jeongin to his own thoughts. There was no way he would be able to just… Pick. Wasn’t there a random generator he would spin? A game he could play? Would there be anything to bring his memories back? Oh, chest pain.  
Chest pain. His heart. His heart still feels. But it feels… Bad. Jeongin gently rubbed over his chest, pressing just hard enough for his clothes to scratch him gently, the texture bringing him down to earth as his empathy burned with the passion of a grieving family, grieving over the loss of their teenage son, trying to come back together. A grieving family.  
     His grieving family.  
     Something in his pocket buzzed, snapping him from his thoughts and drawing his attention back to his body. He reached for the object. It was something he’d never seen before in his life: A phone-sized slab of glass, with a LED screen, very few buttons, and nothing accessible but a single chatroom.

      **You’ve been added to: deathsquad!!!, Yang Jeongin**  
      **Change Nickname?**

      **spearb:** this is the other new guy, right?  
      **jone:** didnt know we had one?  
      **spearb:** by the way  
      **spearb:** this thing only has speech to text until youre assigned  
      **spearb:** theres a button on the side  
      **Yang Jeongin:** What’s going on?  
      **minnie:** :o!  
      **spearb:** chan told you already  
      **jone:** we legally cant tell u anything else  
      **jone:** wed get killed again  
      **Yang Jeongin:** Again?  
      **Minnie:** Omg!! Stop scaring him you’re so mean!!  
      **Minnie: @CB97** Remove him until he gets more comfortable please!!!! :c

      **You’ve been removed from deathsquad!!!**


	2. “I’m sorry.”

     Changbin rolled over onto his side, staring at the chatroom. After Hyunjin decided what he wanted, Chan took him, and Changbin returned to being alone. Throughout the whole two days it took his new friend to decide, it was like he knew everything about him. How his life was, how his death was, how his afterdeath was being.  
  
      **New Message Request**  
      **Yang Jeongin:** Are you Changbin?  
      **Accept?  
**      Y / N  
     Accepted.  
      **spearb:** yes  
      **spearb:** why?  
      **spearb:** whats up?  
      **Yang Jeongin:** I need help and you’re the only person besides Chan I’ve met and I don’t know what’s going on and I’m scared and confused and I don’t know why I’m hurting because I  
      **spearb:** did you breathe through that whole thing  
      **Yang Jeongin:** No.  
      **spearb:** listen  
      **spearb:** i can only help so many people at a time. i don’t even know what happened to hyunjin yet. so you’ll be better off asking someone else. sorry  
  
     Setting the S.T.A.Y down, Changbin decided that one person he helped was enough, and he simply _never_ wanted to help someone pick their alignment again. Hyunjin was enough of a nightmare to him. It wasn’t that Hyunjin was bad, though. It was that Changbin couldn’t stomach hearing another person’s tragedies again, and he _certainly_ couldn’t stomach telling another person his own. There were only 4 people he’d trusted enough to spill it to, and one of them he had a gut feeling that he shouldn’t have.  
     Crossing his arms over his stomach, he stared at the ceiling, thinking over all of the things that had gone wrong for himself, for his friends, for Hyunjin. He had a habit of romanticizing his own past. _How fitting,_ he thought. _A ghost in life and in death._ A soft knock on the door made him give a small hum of approval for whoever was there to come in. When the door creaked open, he couldn’t help but give a small smile.  
     “Binnie~”  
     It’s weird seeing someone after they accept their own death in the afterlife. Nothing about them physically changes unless they _really_ want it to, and only one person came to mind for that. And that was just simply a case of wanting to distance himself from being human. Hyunjin smiled at him softly, and Changbin felt the weight of a thousand worlds press his chest down to the bed. Two sharp teeth poked out from Hyunjin’s lips, piercing the bottom one gently. The tall boy took notice of Changbin’s changed expression.  
     “I’m not bleeding on purpose! I just don’t know how to… Really position them in my mouth or.. Anything, really. I’m excited.”  
     “You have fangs?”  
     “Yeah!”  
     “Why?”  
     The question stung Hyunjin. Changbin sat up to give the other a place to sit. The awkwardness hung in the air like a thick jelly, and time stopped. The older boy kept an unintentionally piercing gaze on the younger, tilting his head a little. He felt confused, and for some reason, hurt.  
     “Well… I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to distance myself from the shit that happened in my life by reinventing myself, even if it’s just teeth.”  
     Changbin nodded slowly, gesturing for Hyunjin to sit with him. He couldn’t believe how much empathy he felt for Hyunjin, and with the defensive jab from the other, Changbin’s eyes started to well up. Why would someone so loving have to feel the need to change because of others?  
     “I’m sorry.”  
     “It’s okay.”  
     “Nobody will hurt you here.”  
     Hwang Hyunjin, age 18, in the afterlife because somebody couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. Because someone else couldn’t stand the fact that he was gentle. Because Hyunjin was too good for them.  
     Changbin’s thoughts reeled through his head, causing him to stare at the doorknob blankly. How could someone hurt someone as gentle as him? How could anyone think about it? And why did he have to trust Changbin with all of this information? Holding onto him and crying the first day because his heart hurt so much, because so many people felt pain from losing him.  
     All Changbin could think about was Hyunjin’s red face, his teary eyes, his trembling hands as he coughed out sobs into Changbin’s chest.  
     A hand waved in front of his face.  
     “Changbin?”  
     “Yeah?”  
     “Are you okay?”  
     “Kinda. Are you?”  
     “Mhm... Can we lay down together and cuddle again?”  
     They both fell back on the bed in unison, Hyunjin immediately wrapping himself around Changbin. He buried his hands in Changbin’s hair, looking for any type of affection and intimacy. The shorter wrapped his arms under Hyunjin’s, rubbing his spine gently. Like the first day Hyunjin came in  
     “Yah, you know…”  
     Silence from Hyunjin.  
     “You’re okay now.”  
     “I know, you told me. I just want to heal.”  
     “I’m sorry.”


End file.
